Breaking News in Advertising, Media and Technology

T-Mobile is acquiring cable killer Layer3 TV, a three-year-old streaming TV service that offers every major broadcast and cable channel in HD, to select U.S. markets. "People love their TV, but they hate their TV providers," boasted T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere while announcing the deal. "And worse, they have no real choice but...

If you were confused by the levity of YouTube's Year in Review video Google's Year in Search will serve as a nice counterpoint. The search giant's recap of 2017 includes footage of wildfires, hurricanes, gun violence, threats of nuclear war, protests and so much more--pretty much 2017 in a nutshell. Yet, Google managed to make...

As video increasingly becomes the medium of choice for consuming content, many advertisers have embraced this shift. Yet adoption has been shockingly slow. As technology, particularly mobile, continues to evolve, so has the way advertisers must think about video. In discussing video strategy and asset development with our clients, the most common roadblocks stem from...

There's been a lot of Star Wars recently. When The Last Jedi hits theaters on Friday, it will be the third Star Wars movie in as many years, twice the rate of theatrical output as either of the previous trilogies. Even accounting for how Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wasn't a "Saga" entry (meaning...

Young & Rubicam is saying goodbye to two senior strategy leaders. Y&R global strategy officer Sandy Thompson and North America chief strategy officer Dick de Lange are both leaving the agency. "After six years, Sandy Thompson has decided to start a new chapter as a consultant and is leaving Y&R at the end of the...

In an emotional holiday ad, Dick's Sporting Goods demonstrates the power of giving--something made particularly pertinent this holiday season as people across the U.S. recover from natural disasters including hurricanes that devastated Southern states this summer and wildfires that continue to rage in California. In the five-minute documentary-style spot titled "reVision FC: A Holiday Assist,"...

As retailers gear up for the most important months of the year, there are a variety of factors kept top-of-mind throughout the planning and optimization stages of holiday strategy. Arguably more than ever, this year has seen significant hurdles to growth in the retail ecosystem, including mass retail store closings, more demanding and sophisticated consumer...

Twitter has enlisted a British comedian for a pair of new commercials, running digitally, that get back to basics by explaining the most fundamental things about the platform--how to sign up, and how to explore it once you do. The campaign, which follows the "What is Twitter?" effort last year, and "Why Twitter?" earlier this...

Messaging application Line now allows users to unsend messages that they've sent within the past 24 hours. Users running the latest version of the Line app can now unsend a message by tapping and holding on it, then tapping "Unsend" on the menu that appears. This will remove the message from view for both the...

Still not sure how to reach that coveted millennial demographic through your brand's messaging? Millennial-focused publisher Bustle conducted some research to help brands understand those consumers a bit more. The survey polled 1,000 women in the Bustle Hive-a community of over 5,000 Bustle, Romper and Elite Daily readers between the ages of 18 and 34...

In the age of AI, VR, long-form film and mobile wizardry, print advertising doesn't get much respect anymore. Still, it remains a medium like no other--one that most purely distills the expression of an idea down to the writing and art direction, and one whose seeming limitations can make breakthrough executions feel that much more...

Video chats doubled, emoji and GIF usage soared, conversations skyrocketed on holidays and group chats became mainstream. That basically sums up the 2017 year in review for Facebook Messenger, and the application's product management director, Sean Kelly, went into detail on each of those developments in a Newsroom post Wednesday. There have been some 17...

NBC's annual December live musical has become a holiday season TV tradition, but for the first time in five years, the network is on the sidelines this month after postponing Bye Bye Birdie Live! due to scheduling difficulties with star Jennifer Lopez. But audiences will still be able to get their live holiday musical fix...

Collagen induction therapy was one of Facebook IQ's Topics to Watch in November. Conversation about collagen induction therapy and related terms--acne, aesthetics, Botulinum toxin, chemical peel, collagen, dermabrasion, laser, makeup, permanent makeup, skin--leapt by 4 times compared with November 2016 and by 1.4 times versus October, with the discussion dominated by women, particularly those between...

A cheeky campaign for a newfangled home-security company is capitalizing on Facebook's silent autoplay video ads--by creating ads in the style of obsolete 1920s-era silent films to eviscerate older competitors. Wireless alarm company SimpliSafe and Boston agency Sleek Machine are out with three new short clips to run on the social network. They feature a...

According to several industry experts, big tobacco companies designed their court-mandated "corrective statements"--ads explaining the real dangers of smoking--to go unnoticed. That's exactly why one Minnesota nonprofit set out to "correct" them. Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation (MSFG) launched a detailed campaign yesterday--complete with videos for social and a full website, bigtobaccolied.com--to "rectify the omissions"...

What a year it's been! Adweek has been handing out awards to power players in media, tech and marketing for over 30 years, and 2017 was no exception. Winners this year ranged from HBO star Issa Rae to GE's Linda Boff to Amazon bigwig Jeff Bezos. Without further ado, here's every award we handed out...

The Annual Topics and Trends Report by Facebook IQ was released Wednesday, and here are some of the subjects that are "on the cusp of going mainstream," according to research from Facebook IQ and third parties: Artificial intelligence: Conversation on Facebook about AI has grown by 4.55 times since 2016, while deep learning has seen...

The teenager in McCann Health's intense new PSA supporting the Center for Adolescent Research & Education is having a shockingly bad day. Left at home to his own devices, things quickly go downhill. We watch with increasing concern as he grows disoriented and stumbles around the house, vomits, struggles for breath, crashes through a glass...

Looking for the most exclusive and absurd gift this holiday season? Let us introduce you to Captain Morgan's "Leg Up Lamp." Clocking in at 40 pounds and standing 4-foot-6, the lamp features two legs crafted into the shape of the iconic Captain Morgan pose. Creepy or funny? You decide! The rum brand is hoping people...

In the past few months, we have witnessed a series of devastating tragedies unfold in the U.S. From Hurricane Harvey in Texas to Hurricane Irma in south Florida to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico to the mass shooting in Las Vegas, it's been one disaster after another. And in the wake of a tragedy, people...

As marketing and branding executives plan for the new year, the digitally transformative adoption of machine learning will most certainly be essential. Adweek talked with executives from the worlds of finance, media and technology for their take on 2018 and beyond. We hear from Frank Cooper III, CMO of Blackrock; Barbara Basney, VP Global Brand,...

This week we've honored the best TV shows of the year, as well as the top 10 new series, but now it's time to shift gears in a more cringeworthy direction and spotlight the year's most disappointing shows. To be clear, "most disappointing" is not the same as "worst." When you can see a clunker...

In the spirit of the season, Cond? Nast is unwrapping two new programs for its advertising partners. The first incorporates a TV-style approach for buying ads against videos Cond? Nast produces. Instead of continually selling ads throughout the year, the publisher is introducing Cond? Nast Prime, an upfront buying opportunity. The company also is rolling...

When the world feels like it continues to break apart, day by day, some brands find spreading positive messages of unity and family can brighten the mood. This holiday season, HP has released two equally touching films created to celebrate what brings people together-not what tears them apart. "We want HP to be a brand...

Twitter had been fiddling with ways to allow users to send strings of connected tweets, and now the new feature is official. Senior product manager Sasank Reddy announced in a blog post that tweetstorms are in the forecast for iOS, Android and Twitter's mobile site "in the coming weeks," adding that the social network refers...

Pinterest announced Tuesday that it is making a self-service insights tool available to businesses on the social network in early 2018. The tool--which is currently being tested by "a select group" of brands--is powered by Pinterest's Taste Graph, and it will show brands their audiences' top categories and interests, down to specific interests such as...

Bob Safian announced to his staff at Fast Company this afternoon that he would be leaving his 12-year tenure as editor near the end of January. "Fast Company is a franchise all about change, and I have reached a point where it's become clear that it's time for me to make a change, too," Safian...

San Francisco is home to some of the world's biggest tech names--Twitter, Salesforce and Uber to name a few--but it's also headquarters for Sephora, a location that has seemingly served the brand well in adopting technology, ecommerce and digital advertising to compete with Amazon. At the same time that brick-and-mortar shopping for all retailers is...

Follow that hashtag! Instagram users can now do just that. The Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network announced in a blog post that hashtags can now be followed much in the same way people currently follow other accounts. Users can search for topics that interest them or tap hashtags that are already included in posts to...